This is my first time using eggdrop, or any other IRC bot for that matter. I only today managed to get my eggdrop running on my WD Mybook which is running a distro of linux. I have the bot authed with Qnet and it is running fine in the channels I want it to be in. However most people seem to have their bot auto-join the channel when they go inactive, for example it will say
James is now known as James`BNC and when they log back on it will say
James`BNC is now known as James.
I presume they have the bot taking any messages for them whilst they are inactive and read them when they come back, however being compleatly new with Eggdrop I have no idea how to achieve this. All I want to do is for when I exit mIRC for my bot to become active and when I log back on for it to leave until I logoff again.
A BNC (bouncer) is a completely seperate software component. Any user (including an eggdrop) can connect to IRC via a BNC rather than directly. The BNC allows them to retain a connection 24/7 because it would generally reside on an external shell and the shell owners don't deliberately switch off their equipment and go to bed. I never did see any other use for them.
I don't really see much point in installing and using a BNC on your own computer equipment. If you don't switch your equipment off then you may as well keep the IRC client active and use a nick change to indicate if you are active or away. If you do switch your equipment off then the BNC would not be active anyway.
An eggdrop bot will always be present in the channels (and monitoring them) added via the bot's .conf file (static channels) unless it is banned from the channel or the channel record has the setting +inactive. The manner in which logs are kept of the channel's activity is also dependent on several settings in the .conf file.
Channel records may be also added via the bot's partyline (dynamic channels). These can be parted by removing the channel record via a partyline command, whereas static channel records cannot be removed in this manner.
It would be possible for a user to have a Tcl script that say via a /msg command will toggle a channel record's inactive setting, therebye having the bot in the channel and monitoring sometimes, and not present in the channel at other times. This can also be done using bot commands through the partyline, which probably answers your question.
The eggdrop isn't actually installed on my main computer which I am not willing to leave on 24/7, it is installed on my NAS drive which I do leave on 24/7, so as long as I do not have a power-cut my bot should stay active.
So what command would I say to the bot to make it go inactive and what command to make it come back online.
In the bot's partyline (DCC chat) the following command would cause the bot to leave the channel #channelname, though stay online.
.chanset #channelname +inactive
The following command would cause the bot to rejoin the channel and continue logging channel events if a channel log file for #channelname is defined in the bot's .conf file
.chanset #channelname -inactive
Ths assumes that your NAS drive has its own connection via your router, which you also leave switched on 24/7.
